Former OpenAI CTO receives two billion dollars – for her AI startup without a concrete product
Mira Murati is said to have secured $2 billion for her new AI startup – with a focus on AGI and a team of OpenAI veterans.
In September 2024, Mira Murati announced her departure from OpenAI. In her message to staff, she stated that she wanted to pursue her own research.
Previously, she was part of Open AI for over six years, and for the past two and a half years she led the technical product development for ChatGPT and the image generator Dall-E as CTO.
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Following Altman's brief dismissal in 2023 , Murati temporarily assumed the CEO position. She has been dubbed OpenAI's "Minister of Truth" for her commitment to ensuring the company's AI products are not misleading or biased.
Shortly after her resignation, she founded her own AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab. According to the Financial Times (FT) , she has now raised approximately €1.7 billion ($2 billion) in a seed round, at a valuation of €8.7 billion ($10 billion).
This is one of the largest seed financing rounds in Silicon Valley history, insiders tell FT.
At that point, the startup had only existed for six months and there was hardly any public information about the product or future plans.
According to FT, investors are primarily relying on Murati's reputation—she was instrumental in the development of ChatGPT, Dall-E, and Voice Mode . Other investors are said to have declined to invest because of a lack of information about the product or business model, according to FT.
Andreessen Horowitz is said to have led the round, with participation from Conviction Partners of former Greylock partner Sarah Guo.
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Murati was able to bring high-profile former OpenAI employees on board. OpenAI co-founder John Schulman, former Head of Special Projects Jonathan Lachman, and former VPs Barret Zoph and Lilian Wenig joined Thinking Machine Labs.
According to FT insiders, Thinking Machines Lab is working on "Artificial General Intelligence" – systems comparable to or superior to human intelligence. In February, the company vaguely stated that it wanted to make AI "more understandable, adaptable, and generally more capable," the article states.
The startup is said to have an unusual governance structure. According to FT, the financing structure gives Murati more voting rights than all other board members combined, giving her the final say on all important decisions.
Thinking Machines Labs declined to comment to FT, it is said.
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